Introduction to the Open Science Monitor

The Open Science Monitor has been created to get some quantitative and qualitative insights on the ongoing development of open science practices. The policy is to foster Open Science. The Open Science Monitor is not an assessment tool. The Commission may draw conclusions from the quantitative and qualitative trends in open science and its drivers to propose new policies for fostering open science. However, the Commission will not base its policies fully on it. The Open Science Monitor will be only one particular source among many before the Commission will make proposals for policy in cooperation with Member States of the EU and stakeholders.

The consortium which constructs the Monitor in mutual understanding with the European Commission engages with a wide range of experts to assess comments and inputs to make an as comprehensive as possible Open Science Monitor. The proposed indicators for the Open Science Monitor will only be used to get insight and track actual developments in open science. The emphasis is on being as collaborative as possible in the construction of the monitor. There will be no exclusive dependence on particular data sources.

The construction of the Monitor will be done in a transparent manner and reference to all data sources will be made.Once the EU has a more open and transparent data infrastructure for publicly funded research, the Open Science Monitor will be improved accordingly.

The Commission is working together with Member States to establish a European Open Science Cloud, which will make eventually open data, open data sharing, and data re-use possible. We do face currently the fact that our current data-infrastructures are not all open and transparent, let alone enable open data usage. Therefore, as long as we do not have yet an open data infrastructure(s) available, we are dependent on actors giving access to data sources, which are useful for the tracking and monitoring of open science practices. The current Monitor will therefore not be perfect, but the intention is to be as inclusive as possible in terms of drawing on data-sources and suggestions from experts.

What the Open Science Monitor does

The Open Science Monitor aims to

provide data and insight to understand the development of open science in Europe

gather the most relevant and timely indicators on the development of open science in Europe and other global partner countries

Latest release of the Open Science Monitor

The Open Science Monitor will be updated on a regular basis in the course of the project, until the end of 2019. Over the next months, new indicators and data will be uploaded.

Contribute to the Open Science Monitor

The Open Science Monitor is a collaborative effort and welcomes the contribution of the community. The first draft methodology has been publicly commented upon online and a Linkedin group has been open to continue the collaboration.

Here you will find the summary of a workshop on Open Science Indicators following a public call for participation and comments.